Here is what I am watching (so far) during the quarantine for COVID-19.
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Velvet Buzzsaw
This Netflix original film was a happy surprise for me. A friend of mine who is a fellow horror-lover recommended it and I was not disappointed. Directed by Dan Gilroy, Velvet Buzzsaw is a horror-satire set in the Miami's high art scene. Jake Gyllenhaal plays art critic Morf Vanderwalt, a man whose negative art review can make the difference between a piece selling for millions or gathering dust in a storage facility. Morf's best friend and sometimes lover, Josephina (Zawe Ashton) works for Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), owner of Haze Galleries. Josephina comes across an unexpected windfall in the form of hundreds of eerie paintings left behind by a resident in her apartment building whom she finds dead in the stairwell one night. The old man is Vetril Dease, and Josephina rescues (steals) his paintings from his apartment before the authorities can come and destroy them--which was the instruction Dease left in his will.
Both Morf and Rhodora are enraptured by Dease's artwork. Other art world folks, such as Jon Dondon, (Tom Sturridge), a rival gallery owner, and Gretchen (Toni Collette), an art curator, get wind of the Dease paintings and try to get in on what appears to be a winning lottery number in the art world.
But when strange occurrences start piling up (I'll leave it pretty vague), Morf begins to research Dease and his discoveries are shocking. Morf begins to lose his mind as he is drawn deeper into the horrific backstory and strange power Dease's art seems to have over others. Recommended for horror lovers, especially those of indie horror movies.
Grade: A-
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The Green Inferno
*Loud sigh* Oh, The Green Inferno. More proof that Eli Roth can't direct for shit. I remember being really disappointed in Roth's Cabin Fever. Well, The Green Inferno is no better than Cabin Fever and arguably much worse. Inspired by the controversial cannibal films of the 1970s and 80s, such as Cannibal Holocaust, you can only imagine how the lives of indigenous people are handled in Roth's sophomoric and extremely white hands. I'll say it right off the bat: this movie is racist as fuck. It also, very interestingly, happens to be about white saviorism. So it manages to both condemn white saviors while also banking on the most extreme and unflattering stereotypes about non-white people.
The plot: a bunch of "woke" college students, including protagonist Justine (Lorena Izzo), decide to travel to the Amazon to protest the bulldozing of a chunk of land inhabited by the Yajes tribe, which has pretty much been untouched by outside civilization indefinitely. They do this in the stupidest, whitest manner possible by following the lead of hot guy Alejandro (Ariel Levy) who essentially puts a bunch of lives in danger to make a name for himself. Once they do the protest, they get in a tiny plane out of the Amazon, it crashes, and the survivors are captured by the Yajes. This is where the fun (and racism) truly begin.
Surprise, surprise, the tribe is a bunch of violent cannibals. They also practice female genital mutilation, which Justine conveniently had a class about earlier in the film, making FGM the most inappropriate "Chekov's gun" ever. The first thing the Yajes do is is slowly dismember Jonah (Aaron Burns), the "fat guy" of the group, and roast the poor sumbitch and eat him.
I'll give The Green Inferno this: it certainly is effective at "horror". The grisly and creative violence makes one feel a sense of horror, as does the communication gap between prisoners and captors. But otherwise, the film is just a mess. The acting is terrible, the dialogue is inane, the racism is so blatant that one wonders if Roth was making a point (and then one remembers that this is just a shitty Eli Roth torture porn movie and the guy ain't a critical race theorist). The Green Inferno is just gross and has no payoff. While I could see someone making an argument that Roth uses gross stereotypes to actually mock and jeer at white people, he does so with a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel. There are better horror movies and better racial satire films--seek those out instead.
Grade: C-
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Joker
Todd Phillips' Joker is A Lot. Joker is basically the movie version of a very intelligent 15 year old boy who reads philosophy but hasn't had any actual life experiences or hardships. On the one hand, you're kind of impressed, but on the other you just can't help but roll your eyes.
There was no way to go into Joker without a pre-formed opinion based on the number of think pieces on this film. I will say that Joker wasn't quite the celebration of toxic white masculinity I thought it was going to be. It's a condemnation of rich, white men who keep "everyone" (in this case, a poor, mentally ill, white man) down. So, in a way, Joker's heart is in the right place. It's "politics" are correct. The movie says: rich people fuck over society and that leads to desperate people engaging in violence. Correct. But like The Green Inferno above, Phillips decides to hit you over the head with a hammer with this message instead of trying to say anything interesting that we didn't already know. This is a film that tells you rather than shows you. Despite its grittiness, Joker is *very much* a superhero/villain story in that its morals and worldview are simple and obvious.
Joaquin Phoenix is undeniably great in this film. He is the only reason to see this movie. Any fan of Phoenix knows that he plays men at the extremes of life very well, and his character, Arthur Fleck, is at the very edge. Arthur is extremely mentally ill, has no support system, little money, and a childhood filled with violence and rejection. We are meant to empathize with Arthur and even root for him. He is a man "abandoned by society" who finally snaps.
Joker reminded me of a more nuanced and more high quality version of the 2004 movie Crash. This issue with Crash is that in its quest to explore complex race relations, it ended up having the depth of a required training module you might complete at work. It proposed the radical idea that sometimes good people do bad things and sometimes bad people do good things, while erasing any historical and cultural context that might serve to explain what racism is, why it exists, why it can only go one way (at least at a systemic level), and why it's so damn hard to overcome societally. Joker is the same, but with masculinity and class. But if you're looking for nuance, perhaps a super villain movie isn't the place to look.
I recommend Joker if you can see it for free/on streaming.
Grade: B-
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But I'm a Cheerleader
I've seen But I'm a Cheerleader multiple times but have never reviewed it. I rewatched it the other day and it is a masterpiece. Directed by Jamie Babbit and clearly inspired by John Waters (it even stars John Waters' regular Mink Stole), BIAC is a queer cultural hallmark.
Natasha Lyonne plays Megan, a cheerleader who harbors a secret that she doesn't hide very well. Her parents and friends suspect she's gay since she has pictures of women in her locker and is vegetarian. She is packed off and sent to "True Directions", a gay conversion camp lead by Mary (Cathy Moriarty) and Mike (RuPaul, out of drag).
The girls and boys of True Directions are forced into comically stereotypical "straight" situations with the girls vacuuming and the boys trying to learn to fix a car. But secretly, as horny teens often do, they are hooking up behind the counselor's backs.
But I'm a Cheerleader is the rare film that fully embraces its campiness but also has a serious and heartfelt message. Megan gets very close to Graham (Clea Duvall) and both of them have so much to lose by being together, which makes their romance all the sweeter.
If you haven't seen But I'm a Cheerleader, this is not one to miss. Panned when it first came out, the film is now a rare cult classic that is also just a darn good movie. And I'm being straight with you there.
Grade: A
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